Honey Creek Farms

This year’s ITM Irish Stallion Trail caught me slightly unawares as it was brought forward two weeks from its original end of January slot. As this was my third year to follow the trail I decided that having concentrated on Leinster based studs the previous two occasions – as one who is based near The Capital, would be inclined to do – instead I would check out what some of our rugby rivals had to offer all the way down in Munster. My plan was to start with Tipperary’s finest then travel north east stopping off at some significant markers before getting back to ‘The Pale’ in the evening. An early start had me passing through Fethard at 9.30 a.m., ahead of schedule to begin the day at Coolmore and I resisted the temptation of knocking on the door of McCarthy’s Pub on the off chance they would be serving a full Irish, instead trusting that sustenance would be available a few miles down the road. I needn’t have worried.

Driving through the majestic entrance to Coolmore one is reminded what a global and aesthetically stunning enterprise has been forged by John Magnier and his associates in the last thirty years. My initial awareness of brand Coolmore stemmed from their former national hunt stallion Deep Run (GB), sire of that legendary race mare Dawn Run (Ire) and who just seemed to be champion national hunt sire every year in the eighties. Since then it has morphed into a global colossus. People say Ireland is renowned for brands like Guinness or U2, I say Coolmore.

Friday’s visit to the stud allowed me the opportunity to see arguably the best and factually the most expensive stallion in the world. Galileo (Ire), who has just turned 20 years of age and who now has a 24 hour bodyguard, will stand this season at a covering fee of €600,000. Is it any wonder that he has round the clock protection as he has now become a national institution and as Maurice Moloney, our host for the morning said, “Firstly aren’t we lucky here in Coolmore to have him, secondly, isn’t Tipperary lucky to have him and finally isn’t Ireland lucky to have him.” His staggering covering fee is at least twice as high as any other stallion in the world and not surprisingly the majority of his covers will be allocated to Coolmore’s own mares with about 30 paid nominations in his book for 2018. Moloney confirmed Darley to be among the list of the customers under the ‘paid nomination’ column and also that Coolmore would be utilising Darley’s flagship stallion Dubawi (Ire) for a number of their mares this year. All is well in the bloodstock world as simple business principles have come to the fore.

As Galileo is in the twilight of his career there were a number of young pretenders to his throne on parade in Coolmore and one who is built very much in the mold of his father is Gleneagles (Ire). The dual Guineas winner, who stands a shade under 16 hands, also inherited the same panther walk from Galileo and given his first foals averaged just over a £100,000 in 2017 it is safe to say his stock have been well received so far. Another of Galileo’s sons Churchill (Ire) is an entirely different model and Ryan Moore must have felt a long way from the ground whenever he rode this fella and he has that great laid back attitude one often seems to associate with big horses. Looking at him it is a surprise that he was a European champion 2-year-old but no surprise that he was a top class 3-year-old. Galileo’s other son recently retired to Coolmore is Highland Reel (Ire) and several of the other trail hoppers in attendance expressed their surprise that a seven-time Group 1 winner of over €9-million would be introduced to stud at a relatively low fee of €17,500. Maurice Moloney had to agree that they may have erred on the side of caution when setting his fee as he noted he was also “one of the soundest horses that Aidan ever trained.”

This being my first visit to Coolmore in over three years I had not seen Australia (GB) since he retired from racing and I must say it is amazing how a stallion can transform from a wiry athlete to a masculine bull of an animal within a couple of season’s of covering and Australia is a fair example. He never exactly ‘filled the eye’ when racing but this regally bred horse now ticks almost every box and with his first runners set to grace tracks this year it will be fascinating to see if that final, most important box gets ticked; hard to imagine it won’t.

While only time will tell if any of these stallions step up to the mark and emulate their father just as Galileo has done his own sire Sadler’s Wells, Coolmore are also seeking to fill the void left by the untimely death in America of Scat Daddy. In Caravaggio they might just have a successor and this steel grey speedster certainly looked the part as he strode out for viewers. Maurice Moloney predicted his coat will be a lot whiter this time next year after a season’s covering, as he simultaneously removed his cap to reveal his own greying thatch, as if trying to prove similar strenuous activity affects us men in the same way.

They don’t come any more handsome than Camelot (GB) and after admiring him for a while I offered my thanks to my hosts while administering a dose of caffeine before making my way across country towards Ballylinch Stud, passing through some villages and townlands en route that I think may not yet have been discovered.

Ballylinch Stud have no new rookies for 2018 but again I find it interesting to see how young stallions alter from one year to the next. Make Believe (Fr) is one who I thought has developed well in the last twelve months but pride of roster has to go to Lope De Vega (Ire) who at a 2018 covering fee of €60,000, is inching towards elite stallion status. Mark Byrne, who looks after nominations in Ballylinch is predicting a big year for the stallion as his crops bred from his best mares received emerge. Lope De Vega has also found favour in the southern hemisphere where his son Vega Magic (Aus) has become by far the stallion’s biggest earner, with his second placing in last year’s The Everest contributing over £800,000 to his haul. Classic winner and Classic sire Lawman (Fr) has surely become a very good value stallion at a fee of €15,000 while New Bay (GB) isn’t lacking for mare support given his powerful ownership triumvirate of China Horse Club, Juddmonte and Ballylinch who are committed to making him a success. Fascinating Rock (Ire) holds the distinction of being the highest rated son of Fastnet Rock (Aus) and his owner Maurice Regan has also been on a buying spree this past year acquiring numerous choice mares to aid the horse’s second career.

At this stage the Coolmore coffee and cakes seemed like a lifetime ago and once the Ballylinch stallions had strutted their stuff I retreated into their plush marquee for a quick taste of their beef casserole and just in case anyone thought this was a script for John Catucci’s ‘You Gotta Eat Here!’ I can assure readers the objective of the day was to view stallions so I declined dessert and got back on the trail towards Kildangan Stud.

On arrival at Kildangan Godolphin chief executive Joe Osborne enquired if I would be reviewing their food or their stallions so for the record their spicy parsnip soup certainly helped warm the cockles on what was a pretty cold afternoon. However my main reason to visit Darley’s Irish HQ was to see their new boys for 2018, Ribchester (Ire) and Profitable (Ire). Richard Fahey has said he would train 300 horses if he had them but he’d probably need double that number through his hands to unearth one as good as Ribchester and this four time Group 1 winning son of Iffraaj (GB) will begin covering at a fee of €30,000. Profitable (Ire) is pitched a bit lower at €12,000 but as a Group 1 winning sprinter by Invincible Spirit his appeal is obvious. Eamon Moloney (a nephew of Coolmore’s Maurice) was on MC duty in Kildangan and I was delighted when he announced Teofilo (Ire) as the next to parade. The 14-year-old looks magnificent and he has sired a Group 1 winner for every year of his life and with 17 stakes winners in 2017 his top level tally looks highly likely to overtake his age this year. Slade Power (Ire) also looked a picture and he is one of a number of stallions who will make the betting market for leading first season sire in 2018 quite interesting.

I had time for one more stop and with two interesting additions to their roster this year I decided the Irish National Stud would be my final destination. I arrived just as a parade had commenced and I had to battle for a viewing spot as a group of 40 Czech breeders had commandeered all the best vantage points. The stud’s CEO Cathal Beale must be pleased with his first six months in the job; he managed to recruit two very interesting stallions in National Defense (GB) and Decorated Knight (GB) while also launching a new bloodstock investment scheme. Beale was proud to show off his new stallion acquisitions and even though Invincible Spirit (Ire) is showing none of his advancing years – the 21-year-old was keeping his long suffering handler Michael ‘Daffer’ Kelly on his toes – it is important for the stud to establish a potential successor to him. National Defense is a son of Invincible Spirit who Criquette Head-Maarek trained to win the G1 Prix Jean Luc-Lagardere in 2016 and the smooth walking 4-year-old oozes quality and athleticism. In Decorated Knight the stud may just have clinched the deal of 2017. The horse has serious stallion credentials; a three time Group 1 winning son of Galileo, out of a full-sister to both Giant’s Causeway and You’resothrilling, who just happens to be the dam of the Galileo Group 1 winners Gleneagles (Ire), Marvellous (Ire) and Happily (Ire). If that wasn’t enough, Decorated Knight stands for a covering fee of €15,000. Who says there is no value out there? As mentioned earlier a year is a long time in a young stallion’s life and that year has been physically kind to Free Eagle (Ire). While his first foals didn’t really light up the bid boards at the sales last year Beale is confident his yearlings will fare much better at the sales this autumn. We all know how fickle the market can be but it’s way too soon to write off this horse and those who did pinhook a foal by him last year could be sitting on a decent investment.

So having covered the guts of 300km I pointed the chariot home and began to wonder to myself, just how many miles of manicured beech hedging did I drive by during the day?

3rd-FG, $41k, Msw, 3yo, 6f, post time: 3:03 p.m. ET
TAPABILITY (Tapit), the first foal out of two-time champion female sprinter Groupie Doll (Bowman’s Band), makes his debut. The chestnut, drawn widest of all in this nine-horse field, fired a five-furlong bullet for trainer Buff Bradley at Fair Grounds in 1:00 1/5 (1/39). Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm purchased Groupie Doll for $3.1 million at the 2013 KEENOV sale. Bradley, of course, also campaigned the two-time GI Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint heroine. “He’s pretty much like Groupie Doll in his aggressiveness,” Bradley said. “When he gets out there and wants to do it you can see that he’s really on it. She might have been a little more laid back around the barn area whereas he’s a bit more aggressive around the barn and in his stall. It’s probably [because he’s a] colt, but you can tell that he’s a very happy horse, always wants to play. He’s very manageable though and he’s a very happy horse.” TJCIS PPs

3rd-SA, $54k, Msw, 3yo, 5 1/2f, post time: 4:30 p.m. ET
NERO (Pioneerof the Nile), a painful debut second as the 1-2 favorite on debut behind subsequent Speakeasy S. winner Beautiful Shot (Trappe Shot) after being overconfidently handled in the stretch by Martin Garcia at Del Mar Aug. 27, makes his much anticipated return. Bob Baffert adds blinkers on the half-brother to GSW Ocean Knight (Curlin). The $950,000 FTSAUG yearling is campaigned by Magnier, Stonestreet, Smith et al. TJCIS PPs

7th-OP, $76k, OC 62k/N1X, 3yo, 1m, post time: 5:09 p.m. ET
NEW YORK CENTRAL (Tapit), a half-brother to GII Saratoga Special S. winner Corfu (Malibu Moon), tackles winners and two turns for the first time since earning his ‘TDN Rising Star’ badge at second asking going six furlongs at Churchill Nov. 26. The $750,000 FTSAUG yearling, produced by a half-sister to MGISW Peace Rules (Jules), is trained by Steve Asmussen. He is the 6-5 morning-line favorite. TJCIS PPs

GOLD COAST, Australia–I Am Invincible (Aus) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) has rapidly emerged as an important sire in Australia, and his popularity was apparent during the third session of the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale on Friday, with colts by the Yarraman Park Stud resident fetching two of the top three prices: A$1.9-million and A$1.45-million. They were split by a full-sister to Group 1 winner Sweet Idea (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}), who was bought by Jon Kelly for A$1.8-million. I Am Invincible now has three seven-figure lots at the sale, and the reigning champion sire Snitzel (Aus) has two. I Am Invincible is the sale’s leading sire with three or more sold, that figure sitting at A$505,165 for 30 sold.

Figures continued to climb throughout the third session, and to this point 599 yearlings have been sold for A$137,592,000, compared to 574 sold for A$119,865,000 at the same stage last year. The average has jumped 10% to A$229,703, while the median is up 13.3% to A$170,000. The clearance rate continued to improve for the third straight day and sits at 87.8%. Friday’s session yielded five seven-figure lots, bringing the total for the sale to eight.

Dreams For Colts’ Syndicate…

James Harron has been busy this week stocking the stable of his colts’ syndicate of stallion prospects, and Segenhoe Stud’s I Am Invincible (Aus) colt out of Electric Dreams (Aus) (Redoute’s Choice {Aus}) (lot 686) is headed to trainers Peter and Paul Snowden to race in the green and yellow silks after Harron prevailed at A$1.9-million. The bay is the fifth foal out of the three-time winner Electric Dream, already the dam of the G3 SAJC Breeders’ S. winner Broadband (Aus) (Sebring {Aus}), and Segenhoe offered him on behalf of breeder Peter Horwitz. Segenhoe manager Peter O’Brien said, “He’s been racing and breeding for 40 years and this is the biggest success he’s had; He’s a good friend of mine. The horse was born at Vinery and Peter asked me to go look at it as a foal. He got great grounding at Vinery before he came to us.”

O’Brien said the colt was “as good a looking horse as you would see,” but that he exceeded expectations in the sales ring.

“You never expect a horse to make that,” he said. “Before we came to the sales we would have been happy with A$600,000, and then he had 29 x-ray hits. Everyone was on him so we thought he’d sell well, but not to that extreme.”

Segenhoe wrapped up a very successful sale on Friday evening, with 19 sold from 19 offered for an average in excess of A$400,000.

“All the credit for that goes to the lads on the farm,” O’Brien said. “I’ve never had so many compliments on how well our horses look and that’s all a credit to the team. Probably the one indicator for me was that at a lot of sales you might have two or three people bidding. Every horse had five or six people bidding and all 19 exceeded our expectations on price, which has never happened to me. It’s a testament to Magic Millions for bringing the people here, and it’s also a great indicator of the strength of the market.”

Harron was involved with the purchase of Pierro (Aus) while working in conjunction with Gai Waterhouse at this sale in 2011, and the agent went to A$1.05-million on Friday for a son of the Coolmore sire, who currently leads Australia’s second-season sire standings by a comfortable margin. Lot 647 is the first living foal out of the winning Dance Card (Aus) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}). It was another good result on the day for Mike and Kate Fleming’s Bhima Thoroughbreds, which also sold the A$875,000 Snitzel–Augusta Proud filly.

Harron’s purchases on Friday also included an A$800,000 son of sire of sires Redoute’s Choice (Aus) (lot 516) early in the session. The bay from Tartan Fields hails from a true racehorse and stallions’ pedigree, being the fourth foal out of Assertin Miss (Aus) (Zabeel {Aus}), a full-sister to the Classic winner and sire Reset (Aus).

“He’s by an incredible stallion, Redoute’s Choice, but first of all he’s an incredibly beautiful colt, a very classy colt,” said Harron. “He comes from a fantastic family and he has an incredible broodmare sire in Zabeel. When you get a pedigree and the sire power of Redoute’s Choice, who has a higher stakes winner percentage strike rate than any other stallion in the whole of Australasia, it ticks all our boxes and we’re very excited to get him.”

Harron described the market this week at Magic Millions, Australasia’s first yearling sale of the season, as “really solid.”

“It’s a reflection of what you feel in racing in Australia. It’s very buoyant, very deep,” he said. “There’s lots of exciting stuff happening and there are a lot of people in racing managing to keep it current and keep prizemoney up, and creating races like The Everest. It’s got a lot of people interested and you can feel it here at the sale.”

Harron agreed the vibrancy of the Australian racing industry has driven up the demand for and price of yearlings.

“One hundred percent,” he said. “It’s a great product, it’s a lot of fun to go racing here. The prizemoney has been discussed a million times but The Everest and days like that–we can feel the knock-off effect with inquiries through the website, through people getting in touch, so hats off to these administrators for getting these things up and going. They’re so aggressive and proactive in promoting racing and you can feel it; you can see it in the ring and you can see it in the prices.”

Two Toppers For Kelly…

Jon Kelly signed on Thursday for the sale’s top-priced colt thus far, and on Friday he added the sale’s most expensive filly, Arrowfield’s full-sister to the G1 Galaxy S. winner Sweet Idea (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}) (lot 733). Taking a page from the book of his trainer Gai Waterhouse, who also trained Sweet Idea, Kelly opened the bidding at a bold A$1-million, and eventually had the final say at A$1.8-million.

“Best filly in the book!” Kelly said. “I’m glad to have her. We’ll try to figure out the right name to be a winner. She has a terrific residual value as a broodmare. She is potentially a blue hen. That’s as good as you can get.”

Reminded that he now owns the top-priced filly and colt from the sale, Kelly said, “Thank god I can afford it!”

Kelly revealed Arrowfield will stay in for a piece of the filly. “I have a nice partner,” he said. “His name is John Messara and I’m very happy that he’s in with me.”

The filly’s 19-year-old dam Flidais (Aus) (Timber Country) has been a gem for Arrowfield. Sweet Idea was herself a A$240,000 yearling at this sale in 2012, and her Group 2-winning full-brother Showtime (Aus) made A$1.1-million two years ago. The mare has also produced Rush (Aus) (Charge Forward {Aus}), a stakes winner in Singapore.

Flower Gets A Jewel…

Damion Flower is no stranger to going to seven figures for a yearling at Magic Millions, his purchases here in recent years including the A$1.6-million sale-topping Snitzel (Aus) colt, later named Chauffeur (Aus), in 2016, and the owner once again prevailed for a prized colt on Friday when shelling out A$1.45-million for Vinery’s I Am Invincible (Aus) colt out of Classic winner Commanding Jewel (Aus) (lot 624).

Flower is best known for racing Snitzel and can nearly be guaranteed to be on each one of that champion sire’s best progeny at the yearling sales, and he admitted that going that high for a horse by a different sire was a little out of his wheelhouse. He said he came to the sale, however, looking for a yearling by Yarraman Park’s red-hot sire, who was champion first-season sire in 2013/14 and has gone on since, his progeny including last year’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Houtzen (Aus) and three Group 1 winners, including this year’s first-crop yearling sire Brazen Beau (Aus).

“We went down there looking for an I Am Invincible, he’s on everyone’s lips,” said Flower, who is also known for campaigning, in partnership, the first-crop yearling sire Rubick (Aus). “Just the nature of him, and he’s out of a really good Commands mare. He was taken out of the box a fair few times and it was just the way he was, his mannerisms, but he was just a real athletic horse. He’s one of the better I Am Invincibles, we thought, out of an exceptional mare. He was the one for us.”

The colt hails from something of a genetic goldmine, being the first foal out of the G1 Thousand Guineas winner Commanding Jewel. As good as she was, Commanding Jewel’s race record pales in comparison to that of her half-sister Atlantic Jewel (Aus) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), the champion 3-year-old filly and older mare who also won the Thousand Guineas in addition to four other Group 1s. Atlantic Jewel was a A$320,000 graduate of this sale in 2010 to the bid of Demi O’Byrne, and she was exported to Coolmore in Ireland at the end of her racing career and has been mated to Galileo in her first three years at stud. Commanding Jewel was bought for A$205,000 here in 2011 and produced a More Than Ready filly this year.

Redoute’s Colt To Asian Interests…

Considering Redoute’s Choice’s rapidly growing impact as a sire of sires, it should come as no surprise that his sons from young, black-type mares would be well sought after at Magic Millions. That proved to be the case on Friday when the Arrowfield-consigned colt out of Cat By The Tale (Tale of the Cat) (lot 591) made A$1-million from a syndicate of Hong Kong and Australian owners. Magic Millions’s Asian representative David Chester said, “The reason they bought him and paid that sort of money is because he’s got real sire potential. They think he’s a ready-made 2-year-old and they think he’s a horse that will fit the Magic Millions 2YO Classic next year and then hopefully later on he’ll be a stallion.

The bay is the sixth foal out of Cat By The Tale, whose three winners from three to race include the stakes-placed Rafael’s Cat (Aus) (Redoute’s Choice {Aus}) and Tale of Choice (Aus) (Redoute’s Choice {Aus}). The mare’s 3-year-old filly I Am Queen (Aus) (Animal Kingdom) is a winner since the catalogue was published.

Snitzel Filly To Emirates…

Nasser Lootah’s Emirates Park Stud struck early during Friday’s third session to secure a filly with residual broodmare value when spending A$875,000 on lot 521, Bhima Thoroughbreds’s Snitzel daughter of the Group 3 winner and Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner Augusta Proud (Aus) (More Than Ready). The chestnut is a three-quarter sister to G3 Thoroughbred Breeders S. winner Thyme For Roses (Aus) (Redoute’s Choice {Aus}).

“She’s a lovely filly,” said Emirates Park’s Bryan Carlson. “The guys from Dubai only wanted one filly. We got it down to two in the last few days and she was the one they really wanted. She ticks all the boxes, she’s by the right stallion and has the right pedigree. I think we’ll have a lot of fun with her.”

Mike and Kate Fleming’s Bhima Thoroughbreds sold Thyme For Roses to Gai Waterhouse for A$450,000 at this sale three years ago, and that filly was sold on to Stonestreet for A$800,000 at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale last year.

GOLD COAST, Australia–Five years ago, American owner Jon Kelly went to A$1-million to take home the sale-topping colt at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. He had to pay exactly double that to accomplish the same feat on Thursday, signing at A$2-million for Yarraman Park Stud’s I Am Invincible (Aus) colt out of the young stakes winner Tai Tai Tess (Aus) (Magic Albert {Aus}) (lot 373). The colt is the highest-priced public auction purchase for I Am Invincible, whose three Group 1 winners include this year’s first-crop yearling sire Brazen Beau (Aus), and the highest-priced yearling sold at this since 2008.

Figures continued their upward on Thursday, the average climbing 10.2% to A$226,848, and the median 12.5% to A$180,000. The cumulative gross for 395 yearlings sold is A$89,605,000, compared to 383 sold for A$78,792,000 at this stage last year. The clearance rate after two days sits at 86.4%, down slightly from 88% at this point 12 months ago.

Jon Kelly has been a passionate shopper at this sale in the past, but he emptied his small but select Australian racing stable in June when selling four fillies at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale. Kelly’s stable will be at least two strong next season, however, as he also purchased a filly by I Am Invincible on Wednesday.

“That’s a special colt,” Kelly said. “When you’re looking for a potential stallion prospect the odds are terribly against you. Occasionally you spot a horse you have to have and this is one of them. I didn’t plan on bidding that much but I got a little carried away.”

“You couldn’t find any fault with him,” Kelly added. “He has a great walk, he vets out, the breeders have done a wonderful job and you can see it all throughout him that he’s a quality horse. There’s a lot of other good horses here but in our estimation he was the best.”

Kelly’s wife, Sarah, is a part-owner of It’s All About The Girls’s dual Group 1 winner Global Glamour (Aus) (Star Witness {Aus}), who runs in Saturday’s Magic Millions Plate.

“We’ve had very good luck down here,” Kelly said. “Global Glamour is just unbelievable. Our luck in Australia has been good all my life. I really appreciate the enthusiasm of the Australian people for racing; it’s very meaningful to me. The other thing that’s very meaningful to me is the absence of drugs.”

Kelly admitted he went higher than expected to secure his prized colt.

“We were on budget until now,” he said. “I’ve only got so many years left and horse racing is very important to me. This is the thrill of a lifetime and it keeps me young. I’m only 81, so I’m just getting started.”

Waterhouse and Bott will be training at least one other I Am Invincible colt sold on Thursday. The training duo signed at A$700,000 for lot 435, Aquis Farm’s half-brother to champion and G1 Golden Slipper and G1 Blue Diamond S. winner Sepoy (Aus) (Elusive Quality) and Group 2 winner Mulaazem (Aus) (Dubai Destination). Aquis was selling the colt on behalf of Emirates Park, which purchased the dam, Watchful (Aus) (Danehill), for A$85,730 from Darley in 2009, just months before Sepoy turned two. The colt was one of three to sell for A$700,000 on Thursday.

Snitzel Colt Sizzles…

The listed-placed Admirelle (Aus) (General Nediym {Aus}) has been a gem for John Muir’s Milburn Creek. The mare’s first live foal was the Group 1-winning sprinter Sizzling (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}), who currently has his first 2-year-olds on the track. A full-brother to Sizzling sold for A$2-2-million at the 2015 Inglis Easter sale, and last year’s I Am Invincible (Aus) colt fetched A$900,000 from trainer Tony McEvoy. Another Snitzel colt from the mare (lot 480) was one of the stars of the Magic Millions show on Thursday when hammered down to the partnership of Aquis Farm, Yulong Investments, Phoenix Thoroughbreds and trainer Ciaron Maher for A$1.6-million. He became the second millionaire of the day and of the sale.

The Fung family’s Aquis Farm has not been afraid to team with some of the industry’s biggest powerhouses in its short life, and Justin Fung said, “We’ve worked with Ciaron and Yulong. Phoenix is an emerging force in the Australian market and we’re excited about potentially working with them in the future as well. You start talking to friends and you find out they’re thinking the same thing so you figure maybe you can put something together.”

“When you get this many people in a room together and you have so many people saying how special this horse is, there are some things that are just obvious,” Fung added. “You look at him and he’s just beautiful. We were really excited about this horse.”

Admirelle this year produced a filly foal by I Am Invincible.

The Snitzel colt was preceded through the ring on Thursday by the first of Arrowfield Stud’s two Lord Kanaloa fillies to sell at Magic Millions, and the initial impression appears to be very good indeed, with lot 479 having fetched A$800,000 from trainer Paul Perry. The grey is out of Adempiamo (Jpn) (Agnes Tachyon {Jpn}), an unraced half-sister to stakes winner Peer Gynt (Jpn) (Sunday Silence). The third dam is the GIII Comely S. winner Devil’s Bride (Caro).

New Frontier For Godolphin…

Unlike it’s counterparts in Europe and America, Godolphin Australia has not bought yearlings at public auction in a number of years. It was expected that would change this week at Magic Millions and that hypothesis has materialized. After spending A$200,000 on a son of Not A Single Doubt (Aus) on day one, Sheikh Mohammed’s team, including Bloodstock Manager Jason Walsh and private trainer James Cummings, signed for a Snitzel (Aus) filly out of Group 1 winner Samaready (Aus) (More Than Ready) (lot 269) for A$600,000 early during Thursday’s session.

“We have a plan and a strategy [for the yearling sales] and we’re delighted Sheikh Mohammed has supported it for the week and for the year,” Walsh said. “We intend to be involved throughout the Australian yearling sale season.”

Of the daughter of Samaready, he added, “She’s a lovely filly out of a top-class race filly. We’re here to source top-class racing prospects and we thought she was one of them. We’re very excited about her joining our racing division and ultimately our broodmare band.”

The bay filly was consigned by Vinery, which raced Samaready, and she is the second foal out of the G1 Blue Diamond and G1 Moir S. winner. Samaready is herself a half-sister to the dual group winner Night War (Aus) (General Nediym {Aus}).

Godolphin was seven lots later the underbidder on a A$600,000 daughter of Not A Single Doubt.

“It’s very strong and it’s hard to buy the horses you like but it’s a very exciting sale,” Walsh said. “We’re delighted to be back involved and there’s a long way to go.”

Godolphin later in the session signed for a Dawn Approach (Ire) colt (lot 420) for A$450,000. Dawn Approach’s first Australian crop is two, and he sits third on the first season sire’s table with two winners.

The aforementioned Not A Single Doubt filly from Attunga Stud (lot 276) will go into training in New South Wales for an undisclosed partnership after Louis Le Metayer of Astute Bloodstock signed the ticket. The bay is out of the stakes-placed Scenes (Aus) (Scenic {Ire}), who has produced two winners from two to race including the stakes-placed Lake Jackson (Aus) (Sebring {Aus}).

“She’s one of the fillies I identified in the sale as a really superior athlete,” said Le Metayer. “It’s an extremely competitive market and we’re only interested in the top horses that we think are going to be fast, early 2-year-olds. She was one of three fillies we rated the highest in the whole sale and thanks to a couple of motivated owners and a bit of spirited bidding we managed to get the filly.”

“Not A Single Doubt crosses very well with Scenic and Sadler’s Wells, that’s a very interesting cross, and she just looks like a bomb-proof filly,” Le Metayer said. “Every time she parades she has this effortless movement, great action and a great attitude and she looks very much like Not A Single Doubt. He’s a very good stallion and one of those stallions that improves horses, because he started at A$10,000 and now he’s at A$80,000.”

The filly was Le Metayer’s first purchase of the sale, and he noted he was underbidder on Wednesday’s A$675,000 Deep Field colt.

“When you’re underbidder a couple times on those sorts of horses you’re even more motivated,” he said. “The market is very strong. These are the types of horses you could buy for A$400,000 a few years ago but the market has gone up, prizemoney has gone up and more people want to participate, so the horses are more valuable.”

Not A Single Doubt featured again about an hour later when Michael Wallace went to A$700,000 to add lot 294, a colt from Arrowfield, to the China Horse Club/Newgate/WinStar stable. That same team bought last year’s G1 Sires’ Produce S. winner Invader (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}) out of this sale two years ago, and its haul last year included Saturday’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic contender Bondi (Aus) (Snitzel {Aus}).

Lot 294 is the second foal out the unraced Husson mare She Loves You (Aus), herself a daughter of Group 2 winner She Will Be Loved (Aus) (Strategic {Aus}). Further down the page is the Group 1-winning filly Lucia Valentina (NZ) (Savabeel {NZ}).

The China Horse Club/Newgate/WinStar triumvirate was busy on Thursday, its purchases also including a A$625,000 son of Written Tycoon (Aus) (lot 306); a A$380,000 son of Exceed and Excel (Aus) (lot 285) and a A$375,000 colt by More Than Ready (lot 284). China Horse Club also purchased a A$650,000 filly (lot 305) from the first crop of Deep Field (Aus) with owner Alan Bell, who raced the Group 2-winning sprinter in partnership with Kia Ora Stud. Consigned by Cressfield, the filly is out of the stakes-winning Shoboard (Aus) (Show A Heart {Aus}). Bell had two lots earlier signed on his own for lot 303, a colt by Deep Field, for A$160,000.

More Sunlight For McEvoy…

Trainer Tony McEvoy sends out Sunlight (Aus) (Zoustar {Aus}) as the favourite for Saturday’s Magic Millions 2YO Classic, and the trainer said he hopes lightning will strike twice after signing for the unbeaten filly’s full-sister (lot 330) for A$600,000 on Thursday. That price was fully double what McEvoy spent on Sunlight last year, but that is already looking like money well spent and McEvoy said he hopes the younger sister will race for the same ladies’ partnership. McEvoy signed the ticket in conjunction with David Redvers, whose assistant Hannah Wall is a part-owner in Sunlight.

“We’ve all discussed it, everyone is pretty keen, so we’ll figure all that out when the dust settles, but I would love to do it in a similar vein as Sunlight,” McEvoy said. The trainer described lot 330 as a “smaller model” than her full-sister at the same time last year, but said, “everything else was there.”

“She had the same fast-twitch fibres the sister had last year here at the sale,” he said. “Sunlight last year was a grosser filly, but they change so quickly. This filly had the same feisty nature, which I like, the same honesty in her eyes. She had a beautiful honesty and she’ll be fast. She’ll be a stakes winner in her first preparation.”

Sunlight was an eye-catching winner on debut at the Gold Coast on Dec. 23 and remained unbeaten in similarly impressive fashion over the same course last weekend. McEvoy described the past week with the filly as “just beautiful.”

“We’ve had a tremendous week with her,” he said. “I went up this morning and looked at her. Normally when you’re backing a horse up in seven days you can see the effects of last week’s run in the lines on their body. Not on her. If someone said to me she ran last Saturday and broke a class record I wouldn’t believe them.”

Redvers was busy at this sale last year buying up a handful of Zoustar yearlings for Sheikh Fahad, who owns half the stallion, and the team continued in that vein on Thursday, its purchases with McEvoy also including a A$525,000 Zoustar colt from Attunga Stud (lot 260). Zoustar, who has alternated between Widden Stud and Woodside Park Stud, enjoyed a good day on Thursday, with another filly having sold to Cameron Cooke and Busuttin Racing for A$525,000.

McEvoy’s list of purchases on day two also included a A$700,000 Fastnet Rock (Aus) colt (lot 318) in partnership with Tim Stakemire, racing manager for Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum. Consigned by Coolmore, the colt is the third foal out of stakes winner Sister Havana (NZ) (General Nediym {Aus}).

The New York Racing Association has released its stakes schedule for the 2018 spring/summer meet at Belmont Park, featuring 62 stakes races worth $19.3 million throughout the course of the 54-day meet. The meet, which begins Apr. 27, is anchored by the GI Belmont S. June 9 and a surrounding barrrage of graded stakes races deemed the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival. Eight additional graded stakes will be held on Belmont day. Tickets for the event can be found here.

Other highlights of the schedule include a five-stakes card May 12, highlighted by the GI Man o’ War S. with an enhanced purse of $700,000. July 7 features another card packed with graded stakes as the GI Belmont Derby Inv. and GI Belmont Oaks Inv. highlight the Stars and Stripes Festival card, which falls on the Saturday after the Fourth of July. The complete graded stakes schedule can be found at NYRA.com.